quête:fire at work

Originally released in 1975 on Montilla Records, Fire & Sugar is a rare Afro-Latin jazz-funk gem by Cuban multi-instrumentalist Jesús "La Grulla" Caunedo. A respected yet often uncredited figure who worked alongside artists such as Tito Puente, Machito, Celia Cruz and Chico O'Farrill, Caunedo delivered here his most forward-thinking statement.

Recorded in Puerto Rico, the album blends Afro-Cuban rhythms, heavy Latin percussion, tight brass arrangements, fuzz guitar and jazz-fusion elements moving from explosive dancefloor cuts to deeper, atmospheric moments.

Long prized by DJs and collectors across Latin, funk and rare groove circles, this official reissue restores the full warmth and punch of the original recordings.

An essential 1975 Latin jazz-funk title, back in print.

Transferred from the original reel-to-reel master tapes

Includes previously unreleased track

Audiophile 180g vinyl pressing + Gatefold cover

Liner notes by DJ Bongohead

Long sought-after Afro-Latin jazz-funk

The creative bond between Atjazz and Fred Everything is a story decades in the making. It began in 1998 at The Bomb in Nottingham during a DiY label night—a label through which they both released music. That first encounter sparked a lasting friendship and a steady exchange of ideas that would continue for many years. While they collaborated regularly and remixed each other’s work, it wasn’t until the summer of 2022 that they committed to making a full-length album.

The project took shape during an 8-day stay at Martin’s (Atjazz) home in the Midlands of England, where they set themselves the challenge of writing one track per day. Their shared musical language allowed ideas to move quickly, with some tracks forming in under an hour. Over the next three years, the material was carefully developed alongside their respective album projects: Atjazz’s Starbase 17, Fred Everything’s JUNO Nominated Love, Care, Kindness & Hope, and All Is Well’s A Break In Time.

A final session in Montreal in 2024, coinciding with Fred’s 50th birthday, brought the album into focus. From there, the duo invited a select group of world-class collaborators, including Jorge Bezerra (The Joe Zawinul Syndicate / St Germain), Octavio N. Santos (SiR, Lupe Fiasco), Clyde Beats, Ernesto & The Basement Gospel, and Dominique Fils-Aimé.

The result is a personal, well-constructed record that draws on the spirit of 90s deep house while applying three decades of experience to a deeply rooted, forward-thinking sound. It is a sonic testament that honours their mutual love of synthesizers, beat making, and sound design.

It is a project that took 8 days to start, 3 years to finish, and 30 years to perfect.

Never Sleep charity tape series lands in the Athens on Spree for an era defying multi genre workout from 2005.

Prototype Reaktor methodologist Errorsmith blows the dub techno expectations away with a mix released on his website and limited CDR that aligns itself as much with early Jackmaster or Diplo sensibilities as much as it does "Ron Hardy - Live at the AKA" purist panache.

Recorded rapid fire Errorsmith sets the trends with liquid gold Dancehall, Jitterbug club, Grime and acidic Ragga.

Challenging any Traxsource ambassadorship, complex concordance for the Soulsee pundit. Covalent bonding tones with granular paced blends, mystical loop rearrangements, combilising genre metamorphosis and "DANCE ON THE KITCHEN TABLE" NRG. Errorsmith switches gears, sets the expectations high and flows like the river Fuldas on a summer's evening

A beautiful nano moment that allowed Berlin to breathe from a different musical atmosphere and dance to a less fixated rhythm.

All proceeds go to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) who provide humanitarian care in crisis situations across the globe.

The Flirtations are poised to release ‘Still Sounds Like the Flirtations’ – their first album of new material in 55 years. They are best known for their 1969 signature song, "Nothing But A Heartache”, off their debut album ‘Sounds Like the Flirtations’. That song spent 14 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100, and its success saw the group tour with Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones, The Four Tops and The Temptations. “Nothing But a Heartache” remains an undeniable Northern Soul classic; it has been streamed over 13 million times, and in 2022 was remixed by Tobtok and Oliver Nelson. On their forthcoming album, which was produced, engineered, mixed, and co-written by Ben Rice (Joan Osborne, Valerie June), Earnestine Pearce, Shirley Pearce, and Viola Billups aka Pearly Gates tell the stories of their lives. Drawing inspiration from the churn of personal, social, and political situations that they have lived through over the past five decades, they capture a timeless and well-earned perspective on love and life. The record, which features the Dap King horns, contains standout tracks, including the reflective call to action “Memories”, co-written by Stevie Wonder; the hopeful love song “Ain’t No Easy Way” and the instant dance floor hit “Didn’t Anybody Tell You”, both co-written by Grammy-nominated songwriter Gian Stone (John Legend, Meghan Trainor); the uplifting groover “Love Somebody”; and the roaring “Take It Back”, co-written by Dave Sherman (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Elle King). The recording process was a transatlantic adventure, with sessions at Abbey Road and Resident Studios in London, Degraw Sound in Brooklyn, and Creative Workshop in Nashville. Retaining the classic soul sound and melodic harmonies The Flirtations are known for, the album will not disappoint long-time fans, while also promising to bring their authentic, inimitable sound to a new generation of music.

Evergreen In Your Mind, the new and third album from Norwegian singer-songwriter Juni Habel, exists in two worlds at the same time. Songs were recorded in quiet corners of her home, on the piano in the school where she works, and it uses the physical world around her to provide percussion. It also takes place, as she herself attests, within a dream; an imagined place in which her desire for oneness with each other and the world around us is finally realised.

Evergreen In Your Mind was recorded with co-producer Stian Skaaden, it’s Habel’s first album in three-years, following the breakthrough success of 2023’s Carvings LP. Formed of eleven new recordings, the songs here remain delicate, Habel’s voice playing an elegant lead role – but there are fluctuations too.

These small shifts in Habel’s sound result in a notable stride forward. More focus went into the groove of these songs. Playfulness was embraced and, perhaps most importantly, patience played a fundamental role in shaping the album with time and care given to every element of these songs. “We always aim to capture effortlessness - but the way of getting there is anything but effortless,” Habel reveals.

This extra time that was given to the project gave Juni the space to nurture her creativity. She would read and listen to music, hike into the hills, place herself within nature and seek out stillness. Not as a deviation from her work but as a fundamental part of the process. It’s a search for connection, and it’s a recurring theme across Evergreen In Your Mind; the polarity between stillness and passion, also our resistance to these desires, and the things we want to live and experience.

The album’s title-track and fist single feels indicative of this narrative. A gorgeous, delicate folk song, it finds Habel out in the woods, hiding from real life, caught in the space between the natural world and the pull of modernity. “It’s nostalgic. It’s about looking back and realizing things will be different,” Habel says. “Its about visualizing something beautiful in your head that you keep clinging onto.”

The album cover for Evergreen In Your Mind also adds shimmer. A striking photograph of Juni among the mountains, it was taken on a day trip to Rondane, a five-hour drive each way from her home. Habel explains. “It was awe-inspiring to drive all the way up into the high mountains, with its wide plains and intense colours. For an album with music that at times likes to hide itself, I think it fitted nicely with such an epic, grand, and powerful landscape.”

"Fans of Nick Drake, Karen Dalton and Neil Young will find much to enjoy in this musical equivalent of an evening spent alone by the fireside.” The Times

In an age that demands hyper acceleration, kinetic flashes and byte voracity, Blak Saagan sticks out like a sore thumb with a sprawling body of work that requires attention and unlocks profound symbols and meaning with every passage. After a 5 year gap, the Venetian composer returns with his most personal and openly political statement yet, ‘Un Sequestro Lungo 10.000 Anni’, a staggering 108 minute triple album soundtracking a dystopian city through flashes of futuristic fourth world visions, warehouse 80s rave-ups, meditative trance and dark rumblings. Following his acclaimed ‘Se Ci Fosse La Luce Sarebbe Bellissimo’ was never going to be an easy feat but Samuele Gottardello (Blak Saagan) approached the fresh canvas with a renewed sense of commitment sparking a dense parallel world inhabited by paranoia, control and repression. A world that is relieved by the figure of a woman with the body of a bird emerging from the asphalt and freeing humanity from the “sequestro” (kidnapping) to which it has long been subjected. Dystopia pushed to the limits and sadly close to our current affairs.

They Came Like Swallows is the first album-length collaboration between Thurston Moore and Kramer (now officially Bonner Kramer), two giants of alternative/ experimental music. The accomplishments and influence of these two artists in the world of independent music cannot be overstated and the result of their artistic union is a startlingly cohesive statement that burns through landscapes of primitive outsider rock, avant-garde composition, progressive ambient and further locales boldly and beautifully unnamable. “Kramer and I reconnected in Miami, Florida, a few years back, many many years after each of us had departed NYC on separate life adventures. It was only a matter of time before Kramer and I started making plans to record together and with his irrepressible due diligence he quickly set up a mobile recording contraption in the pad I was decamped in, the Florida sunshine flowing through the palm leaves, lithe lizards skittering across the windowsills, and we just went for it.

Kramer had the idea to cover a Joy Division tune, a left turn from the improvisations we had been tracking, though wholly in keeping with both our sensibilities of light and dark unifying in transcendent songwriting, both of us devotees of 'the song' as well as 'the freedom.’ What transpired is They Came Like Swallows, a session we immediately felt should exist as a prayer to the war-torn souls of the families of Palestine continually decimated by the brutality of genocide. We agreed beyond words to offer our music as a sonic activism and as a beneficent energy. This album is our duo exchange for human dignity, it is our soul music for any semblance of a peaceful planet.” ~ Thurston Moore “For the first time in our nearly 45 years of friendship, we had identical time windows open to make a record together,” recounts Kramer. After all this time not a moment is wasted as the duo immediately taps into the heightened core of improvisational tension across these seven offerings. Volcanic opener “Urn Burial” notches a similar historic union (John Cale and Terry Riley) to meet the circumstances of the moment, with swirling mists of organ and pounding toms over guitar that thickens the atmosphere with jagged, grimy dissonance.

Solemn strings open the second track, “The Redness In The West,” with Kramer’s cello and viola in dueling bow beneath the high tension drive and sustain of Thurston’s electric guitar, tapping out a Morse code of tension that mounts endlessly into a fog of inevitable war by the end. Moore and Kramer’s sense of experimentalism is in free and full grandeur throughout They Came Like Swallows, though the duo keep a strong and constant sideways eye on melody, composition and architecture, to the ends that any strict lines between song and improvisation are blurred beyond qualification.

As if to punctuate this point, Swallows closes with a nightwork cover of Joy Division’s “Insight,” a doleful coda that breathes out with a solemn inner grace under Thurston’s instantly stylistically recognizable guitar melodies as they weave into he and Kramer’s unison voices. As the lone vocal piece and only traditional ‘song’ form on the album, “Insight” is unique to this set and as a closing statement draws connective lines back to the kind of dynamic, electrified melodicism that wove deep, melancholy patterns into the untamed fire of Sonic Youth’s Sister and Daydream Nation. In the album’s final moments, the two voices repeat the lyric “I’m not afraid anymore” as mantra, underscoring the heavy, unsettled themes and methods that preceded it. Kramer describes the creative process of They Came Like Swallows: “I had composed and recorded a few pieces at my home studio over the course of a couple weeks. Thurston was spending the winter in South Florida, so I flew down and spent a few days recording his guitar parts in his home there. Watching him spontaneously compose his parts was pretty astonishing, to say the least. Once we'd finished working on those pieces, we began improvising and following wherever the music pointed us, and another few pieces were born. We got straight to it, without anything driving us other than the joy of finally working together.

My personal goal was to remain present and catch as many surprises as I could from Thurston's guitar work, and there were plenty during those few days. We had a fucking blast.” Thurston’s contributions here will be readily familiar to any acolytes of his other works, the through-line between his inspired playing, cradled in Kramer’s meticulous, solid arrangements. “If I had to make this record again, I'd do it all exactly the same way,” Kramer says. “It’s like jazz, you don't think about it. You just do it. It was miraculous, and you don't fuck with a miracle.”

They Came Like Swallows is the first album-length collaboration between Thurston Moore and Kramer (now officially Bonner Kramer), two giants of alternative/ experimental music. The accomplishments and influence of these two artists in the world of independent music cannot be overstated and the result of their artistic union is a startlingly cohesive statement that burns through landscapes of primitive outsider rock, avant-garde composition, progressive ambient and further locales boldly and beautifully unnamable. “Kramer and I reconnected in Miami, Florida, a few years back, many many years after each of us had departed NYC on separate life adventures. It was only a matter of time before Kramer and I started making plans to record together and with his irrepressible due diligence he quickly set up a mobile recording contraption in the pad I was decamped in, the Florida sunshine flowing through the palm leaves, lithe lizards skittering across the windowsills, and we just went for it.

Kramer had the idea to cover a Joy Division tune, a left turn from the improvisations we had been tracking, though wholly in keeping with both our sensibilities of light and dark unifying in transcendent songwriting, both of us devotees of 'the song' as well as 'the freedom.’ What transpired is They Came Like Swallows, a session we immediately felt should exist as a prayer to the war-torn souls of the families of Palestine continually decimated by the brutality of genocide. We agreed beyond words to offer our music as a sonic activism and as a beneficent energy. This album is our duo exchange for human dignity, it is our soul music for any semblance of a peaceful planet.” ~ Thurston Moore “For the first time in our nearly 45 years of friendship, we had identical time windows open to make a record together,” recounts Kramer. After all this time not a moment is wasted as the duo immediately taps into the heightened core of improvisational tension across these seven offerings. Volcanic opener “Urn Burial” notches a similar historic union (John Cale and Terry Riley) to meet the circumstances of the moment, with swirling mists of organ and pounding toms over guitar that thickens the atmosphere with jagged, grimy dissonance.

Solemn strings open the second track, “The Redness In The West,” with Kramer’s cello and viola in dueling bow beneath the high tension drive and sustain of Thurston’s electric guitar, tapping out a Morse code of tension that mounts endlessly into a fog of inevitable war by the end. Moore and Kramer’s sense of experimentalism is in free and full grandeur throughout They Came Like Swallows, though the duo keep a strong and constant sideways eye on melody, composition and architecture, to the ends that any strict lines between song and improvisation are blurred beyond qualification.

As if to punctuate this point, Swallows closes with a nightwork cover of Joy Division’s “Insight,” a doleful coda that breathes out with a solemn inner grace under Thurston’s instantly stylistically recognizable guitar melodies as they weave into he and Kramer’s unison voices. As the lone vocal piece and only traditional ‘song’ form on the album, “Insight” is unique to this set and as a closing statement draws connective lines back to the kind of dynamic, electrified melodicism that wove deep, melancholy patterns into the untamed fire of Sonic Youth’s Sister and Daydream Nation. In the album’s final moments, the two voices repeat the lyric “I’m not afraid anymore” as mantra, underscoring the heavy, unsettled themes and methods that preceded it. Kramer describes the creative process of They Came Like Swallows: “I had composed and recorded a few pieces at my home studio over the course of a couple weeks. Thurston was spending the winter in South Florida, so I flew down and spent a few days recording his guitar parts in his home there. Watching him spontaneously compose his parts was pretty astonishing, to say the least. Once we'd finished working on those pieces, we began improvising and following wherever the music pointed us, and another few pieces were born. We got straight to it, without anything driving us other than the joy of finally working together.

My personal goal was to remain present and catch as many surprises as I could from Thurston's guitar work, and there were plenty during those few days. We had a fucking blast.” Thurston’s contributions here will be readily familiar to any acolytes of his other works, the through-line between his inspired playing, cradled in Kramer’s meticulous, solid arrangements. “If I had to make this record again, I'd do it all exactly the same way,” Kramer says. “It’s like jazz, you don't think about it. You just do it. It was miraculous, and you don't fuck with a miracle.”

LA underground hubs DISCOS XXX aka DX3 and Elbow Grease join forces to proudly present Point Winona Sound Library Vol 1 — featuring 20 distinct artists from the inspired local dance music scene, working under one unified studio roof in various collaborative
formation at the mighty Los Feliz hilltop palace Point Winona, overseeing the city they collectively represent. These timeless warehouse-wrecking tracks all stand on their own, but the compilation as a whole offers a solid geographic sonic statement with shared rhythmic DNA and bold rooted-futurist production blueprints, guided by the champion efforts of studio executive producers/curators Tavish DJ and Dave Aju.
The BPS stage-setting opener evokes crispy A.M. hours with lush Detroit-meets-Cali feels on “Within Reason” — then studio dream team 5 ATMs bring the dubwise floor vibes up a notch on “A Dub Called Mondo” and Chitown-to-LA legend Scott K lays down an FM bass-laced acid house heater with “Tighter & Tighter”. Nashville-born producer Gryph funks things up on the live space boogie bump of “Winona at Sunset” while SSRI, comprised of Underground Resistance’s DJ Dex/Nomadico, Aju, and Black Lodge’s fearless leader Kosmik, drop fierce robo-Italo bliss on “Omnicallora”. Things take a further psychedelic twist with the PW edit of Scotty Coats’ sublime midtempo tripper “Be Work Zone Alert”, then Omakase’s own Gold Code alongside longtime rave brother Aju drop the nasty J Saul-salute “Yolo Jungle”, and Warehouse Preservation Society aka Tavish DJ & TK fully detonate floors inna raucous Wicked Crew stylee with “Data Bliss”. Undisputed LA scene queen Stacy Christine arrives with her shining debut “Smart Move”, where she and Aju trade sly vox lines of party advice over a bouncing tech banger for the ages, before the “Obsesion Romantica (Free Winona Dub)” sees Sisters Of Sound aka Maddy Maia and Tottie's, OG track getting stripped back and fired up to acidic peak time form. Then Dave Aju and SF homies Moniker aka EO & Kenneth Scott unleash wild uptempo melodic bruk heaven on “Chuy Luis”, and Vastir sends us home with the stratospheric drum n bass closer "Turnpike"

In the vibrant, post-millennial landscape of independent hip-hop, few collective names commanded as much respect as the Living Legends. A monumental alliance of some of the West Coast's most respected solo artists—including Murs, The Grouch, Eligh, Aesop, Bicasso, Luckyiam, Sunspot Jonz, and Arata—the crew's 2008 album, The Gathering, served as a powerful declaration of their unity and enduring relevance.

The Gathering was a snapshot of a legendary crew working at the peak of their collaborative power. The project masterfully weaves together the diverse styles of its eight members, moving effortlessly from the conscious storytelling of Murs to the soulful, introspective flow of The Grouch and Eligh, and the abstract lyrical dexterity of Aesop. The production, handled largely within the collective, provides a lush, sample-heavy, and distinctly West Coast soundscape that perfectly complements the lyrical fireworks. Tracks like the anthemic title track "The Gathering" and the legendary posse cut "After Hours" showcase the organic chemistry that made the Living Legends a seminal force in underground music.

For the first time ever, this pivotal album is being officially pressed on vinyl. This highly anticipated Record Store Day 2026 release finally delivers The Gathering to the format its rich, soulful production has always deserved. This limited edition pressing is presented on striking Coke Bottle Clear Vinyl, a perfect visual complement to the album's crisp, refreshing sound.

A crucial artifact of independent hip-hop history, The Gathering on vinyl is an essential addition for fans who have supported the Living Legends for decades and a must-have for vinyl collectors looking to own a tangible piece of the era's best crew collaborations. Don't miss the chance to own this definitive, first-ever vinyl pressing of a true underground classic.

BCUC – Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness – have been channeling the spirit of Soweto for over twenty years. Indigenous funk, hip-hop consciousness, and punk rock energy fused into something utterly original and deeply rooted. Their mantra: Music for the people, by the people, with the people. From humble beginnings rehearsing in a shipping container, a stone's throw from the church where Desmond Tutu organized the escape of the most wanted anti-Apartheid activists, they kept believing in their dream of self-empowerment. Today they command festival stages worldwide: Glastonbury West Holts, Roskilde, Afropunk Brooklyn, WOMAD, Fusion, Sziget, FMM Sines, Beaches Brew, Boomtown, Colours of Ostrava, Couleur Café – to name just a few. In 2023, BCUC were honoured with the prestigious WOMEX Artist Award, an accolade usually reserved for more established artists, in recognition of their fearless work and transcendent live performances.

THE ROAD IS NEVER EASY

The Road Is Never Easy is BCUC's fifth album and their debut on Outhere Records. On this new offering, BCUC take listeners on another Afro-psychedelic journey into the soul of Soweto. It feels like a gospel sermon colliding with a punk concert, "guaranteed to touch untapped corners of your soul" (OkayAfrica). BCUC's music is deeply rooted in history and echoes the voices of the ones who came before. The road was never easy for the people of Soweto who originally came to work in the mines of Egoli, the City of Gold, Johannesburg. When apartheid finally ended after a long struggle, it was hoped that life would improve. But more than 30 years later, many of those initial hopes and dreams are still waiting to be fulfilled. This album is about that struggle. The album contains 10 brand new songs – a record for BCUC, whose previous albums featured an average of 3 songs. It represents the culmination of more than two decades of performing together and building a reputation as a powerful live act. These ten songs encapsulate that same live energy, each one building gradually and drawing you into BCUC's Afro-psychedelic stream of consciousness. It's a seismic tour de force through life in Soweto today. Songs like Amakhandela (Breaking All the Chains) connect history to daily life: "How is this precious metal inflicting so much pain in us," sing BCUC, "this government has been telling us we are free, but we don't benefit from being free." The album also talks about all the hopes and dreams that remain: "I have too many wishes and dreams in my head," BCUC sing in Um duma khanda, "I think I am losing my mind". The album ends with the soothing Matla a rona ke Bophelo, "our strength is life", praising the spirits and thanking the elders for protection. The Road Is Never Easy is about the harsh reality of life in Soweto, where "people always carry heavy loads". BCUC are street poets trying to deal with that burden: sometimes revolutionary, sometimes soothing, but always hopeful and compassionate. "When you are from Soweto you can't retreat nor surrender." (Sebenzela)

RECORDING

The album was largely recorded in Munich, Germany during tour breaks over two sessions, each three days long. It took place in a small studio located in a German WW II bunker converted into rehearsal spaces. The songs were recorded in one take altogether in one room, with only a few overdubs added, mainly backing vocals, by BCUC at Fourways studio in Johannesburg. BCUC have created their own distinctive way of writing, or rather, finding and creating their songs. The recording process is like an improvised live performance. They bring their ideas into a zone where the music, the rhythm and the spirits take over until the song starts to form. In this Afro-psychedelic zone BCUC create their unique poetry that feeds on the dreams still dreamt, the hopes, the fears and the temptations lingering everywhere. BCUC's songs need to breathe and time to build. The right take was the one when the song took over, and just like their live performances, no one knew beforehand where the song would take them. During the recording, BCUC just let it all flow out: inner turmoil, cries of rebellion, but also resilience and a search for healing, love, unity and compassion. You don't have to be from Soweto to feel the deep meaning and impact of this music. In these times of so much hate and division, BCUC are like a campfire for people to gather around.

PRODUCTION & ARTWORK

"BCUC have a unique magic," says Outhere's Jay Rutledge, who produced the album. "It blew our minds. It's like punk and pure gospel at the same time. Their music can make you dance and it can make you cry, all at the same time. And when the song is over, you feel you're not alone in this world anymore. We felt compelled to do this." The album cover is based on a matchbox design, matches being a common household item in South Africa even today. "These were the matches people used to burn government buildings and cars," explain BCUC. Little messages, addresses, or phone numbers used to be scribbled on the back of these boxes; each one a reminder of the strength, resilience, and resistance that once drove the struggle for freedom in Soweto. BCUC keep this flame burning. The Road Is Never Easy is a heavy spiritual road trip, a deep dive into the subconscious of Soweto and a quest for truth, justice and sanity in this crazy world. BCUC tackle the harsh realities of the voiceless, guided by the spirit world of their ancestors. Rather than reinforcing stereotypes of poverty, BCUC's portrayal of Africa is one rich in tradition, rituals and beliefs. "We bring fun and Afro-psychedelic fire from the hood," says vocalist Kgomotso Mokone.

Bristol experimental band SUGAR HORSE are delighted to announce that their third album, Not A Sound In Heaven, will be released on 10th April 2026 via Fat Dracula Records.

To celebrate the news, the band are sharing the bruising lead single ‘Secret Speech’, available to stream on all good digital service providers from 12th February 2026.

Also announced today are a run of April 2026 UK album headline tour dates and an appearance at StrangeForms Festival 2026, with tickets on sale now (see below for full listings).

“We are fortunate enough to live in what is generally known as ‘The West’,” says front man Ash Tubb of the lyrical themes behind the new track. “I say fortunate with gritted teeth, because I know—as I’m sure the reader knows—that living in the West isn’t always rosy. The vast majority of people struggle everyday to feed, clothe and house themselves. Let alone receive adequate healthcare, schooling and workers’ rights.”

“We are, however, where all the world’s wealth is hoarded. We are at the centre of Empire. The people outside of this empire—those of the Global South—have had their resources extracted and their populations exploited by our own governments, with very little given back in return. This won’t go on forever. It will inevitably end, as all great empires do.”

“We in The West have a choice to make in the meantime; either help create a new, fairer world, or let the greed of our ruling classes become the undoing of all of us.”

The first glimpse of new material from the quartet, ‘Secret Speech’ starts as Not A Sound In Heaven means to go on—a politically-charged wrecking ball of a song that smashes its way through the often unbelievable chaos and brutality of the 21st century with vitriolic malice.

How do you capture the machinations of the geo-political industrial war machine—and all the horrors that go with it—in the studio, without seeming trite or crass? That’s the question that Sugar Horse have posed themselves on their forthcoming third album Not A Sound In Heaven, and they must surely be one of the only bands in existence capable of delivering on just that premise with both musical substance and cutting philosophical insight.

“Ever since I was born I can remember visions of war, famine, and death being beamed directly into my living room via the magic of television,” says Tubb of the record. “These visions were accompanied by newsreader narratives designed to either humanise or dehumanise the people involved. We humanise our government’s allies and dehumanise their enemies. This is taken as common sense, or even wisdom to some degree. People watch the news and accept it as fact, simple and true.”

“As a person gets older they move in one of three different directions with this acceptance of reality; They embrace what they’re being told, they fall into a kind of trust free nihilism or they learn that there are deeper narratives at play.”

“Not A Sound In Heaven is an aged acceptance of the latter. An acceptance of sitting at the centre of a global empire of both military and economic dimensions. An acceptance that the stories we’re told as a nation, or what’s generally in the zeitgeist, isn’t necessarily reality itself.”

“How does a person cope with the weight—and, frankly, the guilt—of a society that perpetuates such distinct inequalities? A society that thinks a bit of killing abroad is fine, as long as it improves the lives of people at home. You can see why so many choose to embrace it. Hell, nihilism seems pretty sensible. Once a person decides upon pursuing a degree of truth however, things get a bit depressing. Beyond depressing...maddening.”

“This album explores this kind of breezy, frivolous subject matter in a manner that will no doubt be uplifting to the listener and massively financially rewarding for the artist.”

The new album follows on from their standalone AA single ‘What’s Your ETA? Let’s Have A Tear Up’/‘Would You Like Me To Be The Cat?’ which was released late last year as a surprise double drop.

Hey Mercedes, formed from members of Chicago's emo band Braid, included Bob Nanna, Todd Bell, Mark Dawursk, and Damon Atkinson. They debuted with a self-titled EP (Polyvinyl Records) in 2000 and followed up with extensive touring and two full-length albums: Everynight Fire Works (Vagrant Records) in 2001 and Loses Control (Vagrant Records) in 2003 along with two more EP's: The Weekend EP (Vagrant Records) in 2002 and Unorchestrated (Grand Theft Autumn) in 2004. Dawursk left at the end of 2001 and was replaced by Mike Shumaker. After 359 shows and several releases, the band disbanded in April 2005.They played a reunion show in 2007 and celebrated the 15th anniversary of Everynight Fire Works in 2016 with a remastered re-release and select live performances. In 2025, the band made their live comeback at Las Vegas's second annual Best Friends Forever Festival and will continue to play more shows in 2026. In March 2026, Polyvinyl Records will reissue the complete Hey Mercedes catalog. With several EPs and albums currently out of print, this release will provide Hey Mercedes fans with the opportunity to obtain every Hey Mercedes title on vinyl. LP FORMAT DETAILS: Clear blue vinyl with download card in a gatefold jacket.

Hey Mercedes, formed from members of Chicago's emo band Braid, included Bob Nanna, Todd Bell, Mark Dawursk, and Damon Atkinson. They debuted with a self-titled EP (Polyvinyl Records) in 2000 and followed up with extensive touring and two full-length albums: Everynight Fire Works (Vagrant Records) in 2001 and Loses Control (Vagrant Records) in 2003 along with two more EP's: The Weekend EP (Vagrant Records) in 2002 and Unorchestrated (Grand Theft Autumn) in 2004. Dawursk left at the end of 2001 and was replaced by Mike Shumaker. After 359 shows and several releases, the band disbanded in April 2005.They played a reunion show in 2007 and celebrated the 15th anniversary of Everynight Fire Works in 2016 with a remastered re-release and select live performances. In 2025, the band made their live comeback at Las Vegas's second annual Best Friends Forever Festival and will continue to play more shows in 2026. In March 2026, Polyvinyl Records will reissue the complete Hey Mercedes catalog. With several EPs and albums currently out of print, this release will provide Hey Mercedes fans with the opportunity to obtain every Hey Mercedes title on vinyl.

Hey Mercedes, formed from members of Chicago's emo band Braid, included Bob Nanna, Todd Bell, Mark Dawursk, and Damon Atkinson. They debuted with a self-titled EP (Polyvinyl Records) in 2000 and followed up with extensive touring and two full-length albums: Everynight Fire Works (Vagrant Records) in 2001 and Loses Control (Vagrant Records) in 2003 along with two more EP's: The Weekend EP (Vagrant Records) in 2002 and Unorchestrated (Grand Theft Autumn) in 2004. Dawursk left at the end of 2001 and was replaced by Mike Shumaker. After 359 shows and several releases, the band disbanded in April 2005. They played a reunion show in 2007 and celebrated the 15th anniversary of Everynight Fire Works in 2016 with a remastered re-release and select live performances. In 2025, the band made their live comeback at Las Vegas's second annual Best Friends Forever Festival and will continue to play more shows in 2026. In March 2026, Polyvinyl Records will reissue the complete Hey Mercedes catalog. With several EPs and albums currently out of print, this release will provide Hey Mercedes fans with the opportunity to obtain every Hey Mercedes title on vinyl.

There's a tendency in metal to mistake aggression for honesty, volume for depth. To confuse the performance of darkness with its actual weight. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest, the new album from San Francisco-based post-black metal band Bosse-de-Nage, sidesteps this entirely. It’s the group’s most fully realized work yet, precisely because it refuses to be pinned down.

Bosse-de-Nage have been working with The Flenser for over fifteen years. They were one of the first bands the label ever partnered with and have the longest active relationship in the label's history. But unlike most bands who build momentum through constant touring and visibility, Bosse-de-Nage has largely existed apart from the music world's usual machinery. They've evolved on their own terms, in relative isolation, allowing the work to develop without outside pressure or influence. What began rooted in black metal anonymity has mutated into something that actively defies categorization. The aggression is still there, but it's no longer the point. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest finds the band treating emotions like physical objects, feelings with spatial properties. “No Such Place"" describes a space that can't exist but does anyway, somewhere between thought and location. ""Immortality Project"" examines infinite possibility not as promise but as problem, endless options collapsing under their own weight. These songs don't use metaphor to describe emotion. They make emotion into something you could theoretically touch.
Tracked by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) at Atomic Garden East and mixed and mastered by Richard Chowenhill of Agriculture, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest was years in development, with some tracks beginning in 2018.

The long writing process offered time that most records don't get. Time to live with ideas, revise endlessly, to let structures settle. For the first time, lyricist Bryan Manning wrote everything in advance, creating a surplus to pull from rather than working under deadline pressure. The difference shows.
Coming off Further Still, an album built on constraint and economy, Bosse-de-Nage sought the opposite: sprawl, strangeness, fewer rules. Space for ideas to develop without rushing them. Dynamics that move through quiet as much as noise. Presence earned through atmosphere instead of volume. The record even includes ""Mementos,"" which might be considered the first love song the band has ever written.

Nothing here coheres into a theme. These are pieces pulled from low moments and private feelings made public through sound. The band has never been interested in positivity, in music that resolves cleanly or offers comfort. But bleakness doesn't mean humorlessness. There's something darkly funny running through much of it, even when it shouldn't be.
Hidden Fires Burn Hottest doesn't explain itself. It just insists: what you feel is as real as what you can see."

There's a tendency in metal to mistake aggression for honesty, volume for depth. To confuse the performance of darkness with its actual weight. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest, the new album from San Francisco-based post-black metal band Bosse-de-Nage, sidesteps this entirely. It’s the group’s most fully realized work yet, precisely because it refuses to be pinned down.

Bosse-de-Nage have been working with The Flenser for over fifteen years. They were one of the first bands the label ever partnered with and have the longest active relationship in the label's history. But unlike most bands who build momentum through constant touring and visibility, Bosse-de-Nage has largely existed apart from the music world's usual machinery. They've evolved on their own terms, in relative isolation, allowing the work to develop without outside pressure or influence. What began rooted in black metal anonymity has mutated into something that actively defies categorization. The aggression is still there, but it's no longer the point. Hidden Fires Burn Hottest finds the band treating emotions like physical objects, feelings with spatial properties. “No Such Place"" describes a space that can't exist but does anyway, somewhere between thought and location. ""Immortality Project"" examines infinite possibility not as promise but as problem, endless options collapsing under their own weight. These songs don't use metaphor to describe emotion. They make emotion into something you could theoretically touch.
Tracked by Jack Shirley (Deafheaven, Oathbreaker) at Atomic Garden East and mixed and mastered by Richard Chowenhill of Agriculture, Hidden Fires Burn Hottest was years in development, with some tracks beginning in 2018.

The long writing process offered time that most records don't get. Time to live with ideas, revise endlessly, to let structures settle. For the first time, lyricist Bryan Manning wrote everything in advance, creating a surplus to pull from rather than working under deadline pressure. The difference shows.
Coming off Further Still, an album built on constraint and economy, Bosse-de-Nage sought the opposite: sprawl, strangeness, fewer rules. Space for ideas to develop without rushing them. Dynamics that move through quiet as much as noise. Presence earned through atmosphere instead of volume. The record even includes ""Mementos,"" which might be considered the first love song the band has ever written.

Nothing here coheres into a theme. These are pieces pulled from low moments and private feelings made public through sound. The band has never been interested in positivity, in music that resolves cleanly or offers comfort. But bleakness doesn't mean humorlessness. There's something darkly funny running through much of it, even when it shouldn't be.
Hidden Fires Burn Hottest doesn't explain itself. It just insists: what you feel is as real as what you can see."

British rock singer Chez Kane is back with her third studio album, “Reckless” — an explosive blend of arena-ready hooks, slick guitar work, and unapologetic 80s-style swagger. Following the success of her first two records, Chez levels up with a collection that’s bigger in sound, richer in emotion, and packed with pure melodic firepower. Once again written and produced by Danny Rexon, frontman of Swedish hard rockers Crazy Lixx, “Reckless” channels the golden age of melodic rock while injecting it with fresh energy and modern production. The chemistry between Chez and Danny continues to shine, resulting in a record that blends 80s-inspired anthems, infectious hooks, and soaring vocals into a modern rock statement with attitude.

From glam-infused bangers to emotional slow-burners, “Reckless” showcases Chez’s growing confidence and undeniable charisma, proving she’s not just riding the revival wave — she’s leading it. If you’re craving fist-pumping choruses, soaring vocals, and a no-holds-barred throwback to the glory days of rock, look no further. Chez Kane’s “Reckless” is melodic rock done right — bold, catchy, and undeniably alive. Turn it up loud. This one’s recklessly unforgettable.

British rock singer Chez Kane is back with her third studio album, “Reckless” — an explosive blend of arena-ready hooks, slick guitar work, and unapologetic 80s-style swagger. Following the success of her first two records, Chez levels up with a collection that’s bigger in sound, richer in emotion, and packed with pure melodic firepower. Once again written and produced by Danny Rexon, frontman of Swedish hard rockers Crazy Lixx, “Reckless” channels the golden age of melodic rock while injecting it with fresh energy and modern production. The chemistry between Chez and Danny continues to shine, resulting in a record that blends 80s-inspired anthems, infectious hooks, and soaring vocals into a modern rock statement with attitude.

From glam-infused bangers to emotional slow-burners, “Reckless” showcases Chez’s growing confidence and undeniable charisma, proving she’s not just riding the revival wave — she’s leading it. If you’re craving fist-pumping choruses, soaring vocals, and a no-holds-barred throwback to the glory days of rock, look no further. Chez Kane’s “Reckless” is melodic rock done right — bold, catchy, and undeniably alive. Turn it up loud. This one’s recklessly unforgettable.

London quartet The Leaf Library return with their bold new album After The Rain, Strange Seeds. A luminous collection of pastoral indiepop, drawing inspiration from suburban isolation, unreliable memories and the surreality of the weather. Their most immediate and melodic work to date, the richly evocative songs brim with chiming guitars, buzzing organs and warm, dulcet strings, evoking Yo La Tengo’s more contemplative moments, The Clientele’s autumnal jangle pop and early Stereolab’s motorik melodicism. The sound of the album is defined by mixer John McEntire, whose work with Stereolab and Yo La Tengo (as well as a member of Tortoise/The Sea And Cake) have been major inspirations to the band.
The album explores themes of memory and place, albeit through an abstract haze – returning again and again to specific moments frozen in time: midsummer bright hot days in the Chilterns (“Sun In My Room”), meteorology and the strange movement of the weather (“Colour Chant”), red kites circling over suburban motorways (“Some Circling”), and the uncanny feeling of dusk and nighttime creatures on “The Reader’s Lamp” (titled by celebrated film director Peter Strickland). The lyrics are vivid yet elliptical, strung with abstract ideas and imagery, conjuring a gently unsettling, though never unwelcoming atmosphere. Not quite trusting your own recollection of things, while marvelling at the oddness of the natural world, the album’s title a good summation of the mix of strangeness and hope contained within.

As on past albums the band - founded by singer Kate Gibson and ex-Saloon guitarist Matt Ashton in the mid 2000s, and now completed by drummer Lewis Young and bassist Gareth Jones - have involved their extended musical family, including guitarist Mike Cranny (of fellow drone pop travellers Firestations) and keyboardist Irina Shtreis, both members of the Leaf Library live band. The album also sees the return of James Underwood’s Iskra Strings, a quartet that features on 4 tracks, with sumptuous arrangements by Daniel Fordham, as well as regular contributor Melinda Bronstein on vocals and Will Twynham (Dimorphodons) on harpsichord. They also welcomed Paddy Milner (on Hammond organ) and Scott McKeon (guitar) – both current members of Tom Jones’ band – for a startlingly delicate rolling crescendo to closing track “There Was Always A Golden Age”.
After The Rain, Strange Seeds is their 4th studio album. The result is The Leaf Library’s most accomplished and affecting work, John McEntire’s mix bringing a bold clarity to the band’s meticulous arrangements – closer to how they sound live than anything they’ve done before.

The breakthrough album. Enrico Rava's second solo record, recorded in Milan in January 1973 and released on the German BASF label, is nothing less than a cornerstone of Italian jazz-rock - the record that caught Manfred Eicher's attention and opened the doors to ECM. Rava himself has called it his breakthrough, and history proved him right.

The lineup is killer: John Abercrombie on guitar, Bruce Johnson on bass, Chip White on drums. Four musicians operating at the absolute peak of early seventies fusion energy - electric, cosmopolitan, burning with that particular fire that only existed in that brief window when jazz met rock and nobody knew the rules yet. Abercrombie, already on his way to becoming one of the most distinctive voices in electric jazz guitar, delivers some of his most ferocious early work here. White's drumming is relentless, pushing the music forward with an intensity that never lets up.

If Miles' Bitches Brew-era speaks to you, if Ian Carr's Nucleus gets you moving, if you know Sun Ra's Lanquidity and Don Cherry's Relativity Suite by heart - this is essential listening. Rava's vision was already fully formed: South American rhythms, Mediterranean warmth, free jazz ferocity, rock power - all flowing together without borders or categories. By the early seventies, Rava had absorbed everything - the New Thing, the European free scene, the electric revolution coming out of Miles' studio - and forged something entirely his own.

The seven tracks cover serious ground. "Bunny's Pie" introduces the music with an almost cosmic atmosphere of suspense, hovering in that liminal space before it trails off into the up-tempo vibrant frenzy of "Trial N. 5" - Abercrombie and Rava trading swirling solos at full intensity, the rhythm section locked in tight. "Dimenticare Stanca" moves from Rava's expressive balladic intro into pure funk, guitar and trumpet steering over the rhythmic drive with absolute confidence. The title track carries the lyrical feel and cadence of an Incan-Peruvian folksong - that cosmopolitan spirit made audible. "Fluid Connection" rides a funky bass riff into fusion heaven, with standout trumpet and guitar solos that build and release with perfect tension. "Cheerin' Cherry" pays homage to the great Don Cherry - Rava's spiritual mentor and fellow traveler in world music - exploring a North African soundscape that points toward the global jazz to come. Johnson's "Peace" closes the album with a minute and a half of serene, blissful calm - a moment of stillness after the storm.

This audiophile reissue - cut from the original masters, pressed by Pallas in Germany on 180gm vinyl, housed in a thick laminated hand-glued gatefold - does full justice to an album that remains a collector's holy grail.

Don't sleep on this one. Limited Edition.

New “Inversions” of drone rock pioneers Earth’s debut release. A collaboration between Dylan Carlson and Black Noi$e (Armand Hammer, Danny Brown, Earl Sweatshirt) formed in mutual respect and appreciation for one another. Both artists were intrigued by the creation of vast musical landscapes and the connection of music, with its ability to transport the listener. The music of Earth was recognised and celebrated for moving at a glacial pace and yet this new collaboration surprisingly saw Black Noi$e slowing things down even further.
The debut, which originally came out in 1991, notably featured Kelly Canary and Kurt Cobain on vocals on the tracks “A Bureaucratic Desire for Revenge Part 2” and “Divine and Bright”. Black Noi$e reimagines the original recordings with his experimental sensibility and innovative multi-instrumental, cross genre exploration. Applying contemporary electronics to the heavy droning bass and guitars and languid rhythms, this inversion oscillates and reverberates with a different kind of energy whilst simultaneously highlighting the much loved low slow and distorted properties of the original.

‘Extra Capsular Extraction’ was the first music Dylan made with Earth and his first time in a recording studio, which he recalls at the time as being “terribly exciting”. It also marked the first time collaborating with others and seeing it reified into a tangible object or product, a spirit that Dylan has carried through to the present. The original album is a document of a specific period and Dylan’s creative development. These inversions of Extra Capsular Extraction are, to quote Dylan, “an exciting way to reintegrate them into the present time and with my more expanded conceptions of musical endeavours”.
"Doom-metal innovators" Pitchfork.

"With guitars ramped up to the nth degree, but tuned to gut-wrenchingly low frequencies, Earth carved out a veritable canyon of pure molten drone, one which would have a profound influence on modern metal music." The Quietus

INTERWOVEN' is a four-track split EP that binds together two of Denmark's most forwardthinking heavy acts: HIRAKI and Meejah. Built on a shared appetite for boundary-pushing intensity, the collaboration channels the urgency of electronic hardcore, the spaciousness of experimental rock, and the emotional depth of cinematic metal into an immersive work that is at once confrontational and deeply connective. As a part of Denmark's flourishing underground scene for dark and heavy music, the HIRAKI trio deploys an aggressive style of progressive synthpunk from the edge of the abyss. The band presents this sonic assault to accompany the inevitable fact that our world is sick, and we all take part in maintaining the fucked up systemic structures. MEEJAH is a Post/Experimental Danish-Korean band from Copenhagen weaving together Nordic Melancholia & Korean Ancestry. The results sound like Heaven, Thunder, Mountain, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Lake. Across these four tracks, both bands challenge each other to step past familiar contours, unraveling and recombining their musical identities until a new hybrid shape emerges_volatile, textured, and unmistakably alive. FOR FANS OF The Body * The Armed * Sightless Pit * Massive Attack * Julie Christmas * Death Engine

INTERWOVEN' is a four-track split EP that binds together two of Denmark's most forwardthinking heavy acts: HIRAKI and Meejah. Built on a shared appetite for boundary-pushing intensity, the collaboration channels the urgency of electronic hardcore, the spaciousness of experimental rock, and the emotional depth of cinematic metal into an immersive work that is at once confrontational and deeply connective. As a part of Denmark's flourishing underground scene for dark and heavy music, the HIRAKI trio deploys an aggressive style of progressive synthpunk from the edge of the abyss. The band presents this sonic assault to accompany the inevitable fact that our world is sick, and we all take part in maintaining the fucked up systemic structures. MEEJAH is a Post/Experimental Danish-Korean band from Copenhagen weaving together Nordic Melancholia & Korean Ancestry. The results sound like Heaven, Thunder, Mountain, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Lake. Across these four tracks, both bands challenge each other to step past familiar contours, unraveling and recombining their musical identities until a new hybrid shape emerges_volatile, textured, and unmistakably alive. FOR FANS OF The Body * The Armed * Sightless Pit * Massive Attack * Julie Christmas * Death Engine The single colour edition comes as white vinyl!

RE-PRESSED ON CLEAR VINYL!!! The long-anticipated collection of rare A-sides, B-sides, covers and unreleased outtakes from influential punk rock favorites and emo granddaddies JAWBREAKER. A twenty-track Alpha-Omega of rare and previously-impossible-to-find songs presented chronologically from their first demo in November of '88 (before they were even named Jawbreaker ) to their final studio recording, a version of "Boxcar" re-worked at the end of the DGC Dear You sessions. Beautifully packaged with inviting artwork and track-by-track commentary and lyrics (printed courtesy of AARON COMETBUS). 24-Hour Satisfaction Therapy, indeed.

Strut Records highlights a landmark in British jazz-rock with Second Wind, the 1972 album from keyboard visionary Brian Auger and his powerhouse group Oblivion Express. Capturing a fully matured lineup, the record finds Auger expanding his fusion language - bridging jazz sophistication, funk-driven rhythm, and soul-infused songwriting with the clarity and fire that defined his early ’70s work.

Though Auger’s roots lie in the lineage of hard-swinging jazz organ and the improvisational fire of the ’60s British scene, he has never been an artist content with tradition. With Second Wind, he moves further into a hybrid language that fuses rhythm with harmonic depth and groove, without sacrificing sophistication. His playing is expansive yet precise, translating the electricity of live performance into a studio work that breathes with immediacy.

At the heart of this era of Oblivion Express is the telepathic rapport among its members. Vocalist Alex Ligertwood (in one of his earliest major recordings before Santana fame) brings a soulful intensity that feels both grounded and forward- looking. Second Wind contains tracks that have become deeply significant in Auger’s discography - original compositions Second Wind, and Truth to name a few - but it was Auger's high octane revisioning of Eddie Harris' Freedom Jazz Dance, (adding new lyrics to the original instrumental) that genuinely broke barriers. The track became a DJ friendly classic and highlighted the groups deeply original approach.

The rhythm section of Barry Dean and Robbie McIntosh balances weight and fluidity, giving Auger the space to stretch across Hammond organ, Rhodes, and keys with characteristic boldness. Their collective sound is one of seamless motion: jazz-inflected lines swelling into rock-driven crescendos, funk-leaning grooves locking with vocal hooks, moments of quiet clarity emerging between bursts of improvisation.

Second Wind stands as a pivotal moment in Auger’s discography: a record that bridges the exploratory spirit of his earlier projects with the more groove-oriented approach that would soon bring international attention. More than five decades later, it remains a vivid document of a band carving out its own language. Music born of instinct, collaboration, and a restless desire to push beyond the expected.

Repress on black vinyl. Goldfoil embossed cover. Alright! 2023, Black Rainbows are back with 12 fresh, brand new tunes! The new album sounds huge, with of a great deal of attention paid to the guitars in the recording, and it seems that the band has finally found the perfect balance and tone for their heavy super stoner sound! This album gives you not only incredible heavy rock-stoner gems, but also: one space acoustic song, one super psychedelic suite and one melodic trippy ballad that adds a perfect mixture of what is sure to be the best album released by the band so far! "Superskull" has been recorded by Fabio Sforza (the same producer of the last two recordings), in May 2022, and after much work and effort by the band in mixing and mastering, the album will see the light of day one year later. The incredible artwork has been delivered by the brazilian artist Pedro Correa.

"The Outfit release career defining new album, Preservers of the Pearl, asserting themselves as messengers of the new wave of underground rock and roll, pushing the movement forward alongside fellow trailblazers Mystery Lights, Sheer Mag, Shadow Show, Uni Boys + more.

Everything has been leading here. Daniel Romano shifts from his position as sole writer, opening the floor to Outfit stalwarts Ian Romano and Carson McHone, and welcoming into the fold longtime friend and legendary Canadian rock-n-roller, Tommy Major. The band is functioning as a true collective — multiple voices and perspectives — all serving one creative pulse. The result is both a new beginning and a homecoming, a complete and fearless statement.

Tracked to tape at their own Camera Varda studio, the album captures the band live in the room — breathing, musing, and believing. It’s the sound of human hands and hearts at work, in a shared moment of co-creation, preserved in real time in stunning hi-fi.

Here is music as communion — rock n roll as experience. Preservers of the Pearl rejects the flattening forces in modern times — what the band calls “the mono-agriculture of the mind.” In a “target culture”, condemned to homogeny and banality, The Outfit refuse polish and uniformity, embracing imperfection as truth, and promoting curiosity through creativity. At the center of it all is a deep spiritual current — what The Outfit calls Rock & Roll Magick: the belief that music is a sacred act, a force that can reconnect the individual to what is larger.

The Outfit are making music that is purposeful and profoundly urgent. Preservers of the Pearl is an invocation - it’s fearless in a time of great compromise, and resolute in an age of peripheral bullshit. Here is a band serving something greater than themselves."

"The Outfit release career defining new album, Preservers of the Pearl, asserting themselves as messengers of the new wave of underground rock and roll, pushing the movement forward alongside fellow trailblazers Mystery Lights, Sheer Mag, Shadow Show, Uni Boys + more.

Everything has been leading here. Daniel Romano shifts from his position as sole writer, opening the floor to Outfit stalwarts Ian Romano and Carson McHone, and welcoming into the fold longtime friend and legendary Canadian rock-n-roller, Tommy Major. The band is functioning as a true collective — multiple voices and perspectives — all serving one creative pulse. The result is both a new beginning and a homecoming, a complete and fearless statement.

Tracked to tape at their own Camera Varda studio, the album captures the band live in the room — breathing, musing, and believing. It’s the sound of human hands and hearts at work, in a shared moment of co-creation, preserved in real time in stunning hi-fi.

Here is music as communion — rock n roll as experience. Preservers of the Pearl rejects the flattening forces in modern times — what the band calls “the mono-agriculture of the mind.” In a “target culture”, condemned to homogeny and banality, The Outfit refuse polish and uniformity, embracing imperfection as truth, and promoting curiosity through creativity. At the center of it all is a deep spiritual current — what The Outfit calls Rock & Roll Magick: the belief that music is a sacred act, a force that can reconnect the individual to what is larger.

The Outfit are making music that is purposeful and profoundly urgent. Preservers of the Pearl is an invocation - it’s fearless in a time of great compromise, and resolute in an age of peripheral bullshit. Here is a band serving something greater than themselves."

B. Chamber (Stratum A), by B. Close, is the first full length solo release by Los Angeles-based multi-disciplinary artist Brian Close. The first of two volumes assembled from some thirteen hours of music produced by Close while residing in Connecticut from 2021-2025, B. Chamber (Stratum A) offers a vivid, fractal afterimage of a prolific, specific time and space in the artist’s oeuvre.

After leaving New York City early in the pandemic to a farmhouse in the countryside with dedicated spaces for multiple sound stations, Close developed an intensive daily practice of melding with the machines. The vast, pastoral backdrop of rural CT provided inspiration and contrast for his ongoing investigations into dynamic, poly-rhythmic electronic music. The sounds on B. Chamber (Stratum A) range from the machine-modeling of acoustic instruments and natural environments to the utterly unhuman, spinning on the axis between crystalline, pointillist precision and shifty blown-cone distortion. Close’s atypical interpretations of rhythm, noise and other undefined musics land in a hybrid zone of their own.

Throughout B. Chamber (Stratum A), Close’s productions are in perpetual motion. Foxtrot’s shifting hi-hats and disembodied voices rise like cicadas propelled by glitching machines and tangled rhythms, Many Drive draws momentum from dubby stabs and twinkling atmospherics. Character Community’s nimble, drifting snares and erratic static are uplifted by swelling synths, and Mpan’s modular mining forgoes drums but is no less propulsive for it. Acre Voices’ seasick pads and deft drum patterns tap an energizing nerve, and closer 5D Bow’s ambush of pummeling machine gun fire spirals into the tryptamine palace and emerges completely rinsed and refreshed.

Equally powerful in the club as in the outdoors, in the headphones eyes closed or on the move, B. Chamber (Stratum A) grants an immersive temporary trip on B. Close’s unique wavelength, with Stratum B to complete the picture in the summer of 2026.

RIYL - Mark Fell, muay thai, Vladislav Delay, gaming, Errorsmith, modular synthesizer.

+++++

Brian Close (b. 1979, NYC) uses the cold logic of mathematics to trigger states of total sensory displacement. Close co-founded multiple AV studios to explore the "hypnotic"—a ritualistic practice of motional-graphism and improvisational sound. His work is a study in synesthesia and the architecture of trance, using geometric precision to dissolve the sense of time. It is a digital-visceral experience built on heavy logic, designed for large-scale immersion and timelessness.

Close is one half of Georgia who have released records on Palto Flats, Firecracker Recordings, Meakusma, Youth, OOH-Sounds and EM Records, and have a long-running residency on NTS.

B. Chamber was written, produced and mixed by Brian Close.
Mastered by Rashad Becker.
Artwork by Brian Close.

EP2 Limited 2 x 12" Vinyl & Digital Release The second digital and vinyl EP from Brian Jackson and Masters At Work’s highly anticipated ‘Now More Than Ever’ project is a masterclass in soulful innovation, musical legacy, and collaborative excellence. Carefully curated and expertly packaged for true fans, this release brings together extended versions and rare cuts that were simply too expansive, deep, and powerful to fit on the forthcoming triple LP — but far too important not to be heard. The double pack also includes the title track off the forthcoming album ‘Now More Than Ever’, a brand-new, never-before-heard track birthed organically during the energy and creative momentum of the recording sessions. It stands as a testament to the spontaneous brilliance of Jackson, MAW and their collaborators, capturing a moment of pure musical inspiration. The EP features seven tracks, including reimagined and extended versions of classics such as Kenlou Cult Classic ‘Moonshine’, Jackson and Heron’s ‘Lady Day and John Coltrane’, and ‘Home Is Where the Hatred Is’, plus a deep focus on ‘Racetrack in France’ — first recorded by Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron in 1977 for their landmark Bridges album. Highlights include: The MAW (Masters at Work) Live Mix of ‘Moonshine’, featuring former Midnight Band/Amnesia Express multi-instrumentalist Carl Cornwell on saxophone. A sprawling 12" version of ‘Home Is Where the Hatred Is’ — a jazz-fuelled dancefloor reinterpretation blending political fire with sonic elegance. The 12” version of ‘Lady Day and John Coltrane’, featuring Rahsaan Patterson’s soulful vocal performance set against a lush, cinematic arrangement. A masterful reworking of ‘Racetrack in France’ featuring legends Josh Milan, J. Ivy, and Moodymann, each bringing their distinct voice and flavour to this seminal piece. The instrumental version is also included in this 2 x 12” EP. Whether you're a long-time devotee of Brian Jackson and Gil Scott-Heron’s influential catalogue, a DJ or collector chasing rare wax, or a new listener drawn to future-leaning soul and jazz, Now More Than Ever ‘EP Two’ is an essential release — a bridge between the past, present, and the music still to come.

In the pantheon of classic free jazz, Noah Howard's The Black Ark looms large. Recorded at Bell Sound Studios in New York City in 1969 – just prior to the alto saxophonist's relocation to Europe – the album was eventually released in 1972.

The Black Ark exhibits not only the power and imagination of Howard's playing, but also his breadth as a composer and bandleader. Listeners expecting unrelenting blasts of "energy music" might be surprised to find a cohesion atypical of free jazz; amidst the wild, impassioned solos, Howard weaves in Latin rhythms and fat-bottomed grooves.

The first side, consisting of "Domiabra" and “Ole Negro,” sets the album's tone. Both tracks sound as if they could have appeared on some of Blue Note's proto-spiritual jazz, groove-heavy releases – evoking the likes of Lou Donaldson or Horace Silver – before ceding the floor to the horn players' anarchic firepower.

As John Corbett writes in the liner notes, "Two players stand out. Bassist Norris Jones – who would soon consolidate his name into a one-word reversed amalgamation/permutation of the two, Sirone – is given ample room, largely unaccompanied; his corporal approach foreshadows later work with the Revolutionary Ensemble. But the secret weapon on The Black Ark is Arthur Doyle. Straight from basement rehearsal sessions with Milford Graves, whose ensemble he had joined and who remained a favorite of the drummer for decades, Doyle is a human flamethrower."

Trumpeter Earl Cross' guttural, vocal effects complement Doyle's take-no-prisoners approach, while the estimable combination of Muhammad Ali (Rashied's brother) on drums and Juma Sultan on congas adds an ever-shifting propulsion. The septet is rounded out by the enigmatic pianist Leslie Waldron, who anchors the group with imaginative accompaniment and occasional boppish flourishes.

Every bit worthy of its reputation as an "out-jazz" holy grail, The Black Ark only sounds better with age. It remains the ideal record to convert the remaining free-jazz skeptics.

Impatience is thrilled to present Leaving Memory, the latest album-length work by Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova. Leaving Memory is a searing distillation of the duo’s ouevre - it’s eleven prismatic electronic seances combining for a mind warping wormhole with it’s own internal (il)llogic, where pop, ambient, and industrial music convene beneath a rugged HD of digital processing and brain fog. Equally rosy with nostalgia as it is ominously forward looking, Leaving Memory defies easy categorization and makes for an astounding, confounding listen.

By turns violently abrasive and disarmingly touching, Piper and Lena deploy sounds that fracture and disintegrate, burn up and explode, synthetic supernovas that give the record an unmistakable, inimitable texture. Song structures often abide by their own blueprint - heading in one direction before making an abrupt dive elsewhere. Bursts of vibrant colour lurk below layers of grayscale noise. Unidentifiable voices deliver secret messages from the murk. When rhythm’s emerge they ground the tracks to some unknown terrain and invigorate.

Lame Line veers towards the sweeter end of their spectrum, a hazy plaintive repetition increasingly lashed with friction, before Exit erupts with clanging rhythm and shards of distortion. Diagnosis is an almost sweet alt-pop song, Lena’s vocals yearning beneath a dubby shuffle, while Keeper Of The Void’s possessed incantations open up to a ripping, fried climax. Beryl Grey releases the pressure gauge, a gently lilting drift arpeggiating as the sun sets, and Lost Cars sweats through claustrophobic drones and bird song before the clouds part on a serene scene. Leaving Memory closes with Shin, offering a genuinely sweet resolution and a gentle landing back down to earth of either footsteps or fireworks, swelling synthesized horns and woodwinds, a kiss on the cheek for making it out the other side.

On Leaving Memory, Piper Spray & Lena Tsibizova share their uniquely discordant take on freaky music for unsettled minds, an intensely energized set that offers a deeply evocative, unimaginable otherworld for adventurous ears.

Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova have been producing music together since 2020. Leaving Memory is the first to be presented in the LP format. Piper has previously released music via Orange Milk, Hausu Mountain and Gost Zvuk, as well as his own Singapore Sling Tapes label. Lena works predominantly as a photographer, and together Piper and Lena have released music via radio.syg.ma and Kartaskvazhin. Both make music as part of Air Krew, who have released music on the Echotourist and Motion Ward labels. They’re both currently based nowhere.

Leaving Memory was written, produced and mixed by Piper Spray and Lena Tsibizova, and mastered by Sergey Podluzhniy. Cover photo by Lena Tsibizova, design and layout by Justin Sloane.

Mike Mareen – “Africa” (Previously Unreleased Maxi Single) – A long-lost Italo disco gem finally sees the light of day.

In the mid-80s, Mike Mareen was at the height of his fame, setting charts and dancefloors on fire with hits like “Love Spy” and “Agent of Liberty”. Riding that wave, he began work on his second album “Let’s Start Now”, which featured socially conscious songs addressing issues like the Berlin Wall, German reunification, and famine in Africa.

One standout track, “Africa”, was inspired by movements like Band Aid and USA for Africa. Though recorded and intended as a single, it was mysteriously shelved and never released in maxi format… until now.

Thanks to Vintage Pleasure Boutique, this missing piece of Mareen’s discography is finally available on vinyl, complete with a special DJ Edit crafted for today’s retro selectors. A must-have for fans and collectors of true 80s synth-pop and Italo disco.

APORIAMOR noun 1. The death of love’s contradiction.
| “Embody APORIAMOR”

Etymology
aporia-: an irresolvable internal contradiction or logical disjunction in a text, argument, or theory. from Greek aporos ‘impassable’, from a- ‘without’ + poros ‘passage’
-amor: love. Sentimiento intenso del ser humano que, partiendo de su propia insuficiencia, necesita y busca el encuentro y unión con otro ser. Del latín amor.
-mor: latin for death.

APORIAMOR explores the affective ontological and organic processes of love and lust in the turmoil of an urban existence, through the female lens. It expresses the process of strengthening through heartbreak in its various forms.

With her debut EP The Art of the Concrete, elsas knew that by giving that name to a record which was ironically expansive and experimental, she would be calling for a distilled and clearer path further down the line. This is what she’s been incorporating into the sonic world of this new EP, APORIAMOR, signifying the birth of a more matured and distilled version of herself as an artist.

With APORIAMOR (“the death of love’s contradiction”) elsas conveys a personal process of healing in the romantic space. Through different experiences of heartbreak, elsas builds a language - a coping mechanism attached to its subsequent artistic expression – that isn’t founded on hardness or a closing-off, but instead, on a playful but profound reckoning, and learning of self-worth.

APORIAMOR embraces the complexities of being a lover-girl: of moving through life with an open heart. It celebrates the clarity, sweet hindsight, and detachment that come from processing emotion. APORIAMOR is both an affirmation and a release.

elsas makes canonical blends with a forward boundary-bending vision. Her sound in this record is naturally referential of both her Mediterranean heritage and UK alternative music — intrinsic parts of her lived experience. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with artists she deeply admires, each exchange enriching her creative world.

The experience of working hand-in-hand with Sampha for the last 3 years and ongoingly has been a core of her evolution as an artist. She has also collaborated in many forms with artists like Florence + the Machine, Little Simz, Jordan Rakei, Jockstrap, Obongjayar, Black Country New Road, Genevieve Artadi (KNOWER) and Duval Timothy. Additionally, her ongoing work with the Idrîsî Ensemble, of which she is a core member, continues to inform her artistic depth.

The making of this largely self-produced record unfolded over four years — “it’s a well-kneaded dough,” she says. These songs evolved through exposure to multiple environments: from early writing sessions in her childhood home in the Spanish countryside, to stages across the U.S. while on tour supporting Sampha.

Experimentation and modulation are an intrinsic part of elsas’ method, conceiving songs as organisms that respond to their surroundings. Collaborators on this collection of songs include Shrink, Will Lister, Gabriel Gifford, Ethan P. Flynn and more. The record was mixed by David Wrench (a long-time supporter of elsas’) and Nathan Boddy, and mastered by Matt Colton.

With APORIAMOR, elsas creates a visual world from the fabulation of the past, as an act of playful historical revisionism in which she embeds herself as both subject and storyteller. The songs function like an archive of her experiences across various years, each one unearthed and presented as some sort of archaeological artifact. Through this body of work, elsas begins to conceptualize herself as a legacy artist: one who honors the archive of her own becoming while emerging as a distinct and resonant voice in today’s musical landscape.

Temple Balls, the high-octane hard rock band from Finland, is back with a brand-new self-titled album. Over the past few years, the band has kept busy both in the studio and on the road, solidifying their reputation as one of the most exciting live acts in the genre. Having opened for legendary acts such as Sonata Arctica, Queen, Deep Purple, and Uriah Heep, Temple Balls have proven they can command any stage—whether it’s a massive festival or an intimate club. Their live shows are explosive, turning skeptics into die-hard fans with their raw energy and undeniable charisma. The journey began with their official debut single, “Hell and Feelin’ Fine,” released in September 2016, which gained heavy rotation on Finnish Radio Rock. Their debut album, recorded in May 2016 at Karma Sound Studios in Thailand, was released on February 24, 2017. Produced by Tobias Lindell (Europe, Mustasch, H.E.A.T.), the album marked the band’s bold entrance into the international rock scene. In the fall of 2017, Temple Balls embarked on a sold-out Finnish tour with Battle Beast, made their live debut in Japan, and completed a five-day tour across Ukraine. Their popularity soared in Japan, where readers of the country’s biggest rock magazine Burrn! voted them the “Second Brightest Hope,” and they were named “Newcomer of the Year” on Masa Ito’s Rock TV. Their sophomore effort, Untamed, released on March 8, 2019, received rave reviews from major music outlets including Soundi and Burrn!. A European tour alongside Sonata Arctica further cemented their reputation as a world-class live band. Their third album, Pyromide, marked their debut with Frontiers Records and was a melodic hard rock tour de force produced by Jona Tee (H.E.A.T.), packed with powerful riffs, massive hooks, and arena-sized choruses. In May 2022, Temple Balls toured Europe with Swedish melodic metal giants H.E.A.T., followed by a busy summer festival season across Finland. The lead single from their fourth album, Strike Like a Cobra, was released in March 2022 to widespread acclaim. That same year, they completed work on their next full-length, Avalanche, released in fall 2023, featuring the single “No Reason,” which dropped globally on June 22. Now, with their new self-titled album, Temple Balls continue the sonic evolution started with Avalanche, delivering an even more personal and refined sound.

Ascension marks the Manjumasi debut of Brazilian producer Canavezzi, distilling the label’s trademark quirky sophistication through a distinctly South American lens. The EP drifts between deep house, dub-soaked textures, micro-details and tech-driven grooves, always subtle, never obvious.
Across the record, Canavezzi works in tiny movements: flickers of percussion, vapor-trail chords and basslines that feel less “written” and more sculpted over time. Nothing shouts, everything glows. It’s the kind of sound that sneaks into a warm-up set and is still echoing in your head when the lights come on.
True to the San Francisco imprint’s ethos of deep, complex, melodic grooves with a playful twist, Ascension is built for dancers and listeners alike, equally at home on a smoky after-hours floor, a rooftop at sunrise or late-night headphones.
A thoughtful slice of contemporary house from Brasil to Manjumasi, Ascension is less about peak-time fireworks and more about that slow, undeniable lift: a steady climb into its own hypnotic orbit.

Repress

Anthony Naples returns with his second full length album, "Take Me With You", arriving first as a 'Mixed Version' cassette inspired and commissioned by the Good Morning Tapes series, followed by Digital, Vinyl and even Long Sleeve T-Shirt formats.

Originally conceived as a D.J. mixtape dedicated to friends and the time spent with them in the morning hours after the parties over (or beginning) - it quickly morphed into a soft focused meditation on all things warm and intangible.

'Take Me With You' fires off in all styles - the opening triptych of the extra-cosmic 'Alto', post-rave pianos of 'Goodness' and slow-dance-inducing 'Drifter' bring the attention inward — taking cues from a host of personal favorites including: 'Space' LP by Space, The Theater Of Eternal Music, Panda Bear's 'Person Pitch' , Atlas Sound's 'Let The Blind Lead...', Arthur Russell's 'World Of Echo', Suzanne Ciani's 'Buchla Concerts: 1975', The Microphones 'The Glow Pt. II' & 'Mount Eerie', A mixtape of Krautrock from DJ Ivan Berko and most definitely Holger Czukay, 'Take Me With You' is a fresh turn for Naples as he ascends into a blend of his most personal work to date — touching on trip-hop, psychedelic pop, ambient house, and much more along the way.

Make no mistake - 'Take Me With You''s message is undoubtedly about escapism, given away by its happy-abductee cover art done by the legend Biscuit— but first and foremost it reflects on that lingering feeling one gets when walking away from the ones they love.

Jaime Fennelly, as Mind Over Mirrors, makes music that pushes the known to the lip of the unknown, where it rocks precariously and in exhilaration. He scrambles the familiar and tweaks the comfortable, not through aggression, but a throbbing estrangement. When placed at a distance, these require longer reaches to grasp. The reward for this effort is an enlarged field of perspective, experience, and also of feeling. This is deeply feeling music to feel deeply.

In all of Jaime’s records—and, arguably, especially in Particles, Peds, & Pores—there’s a seed of the pastoral, some ancient shepherd’s song ringing through nearby hills and groves, but one also yearning to plumb the uncanny and the creative possibilities of disintegration. “Farewell to woods,” the grieving Damon sings in Virgil’s eighth Eclogue. “Let all be ocean now.” Fennelly sounds vast, enveloping wildernesses and the thrilling disquiet of their echoless grandeur. (Maybe Burroughs speaks to the borders of these zones: “Pulsing mineral silence as word dust falls from demagnetized patterns.”) There’s something of the heroic at work here, too, although the hero’s instinct has been suitably tempered—or awed—to know not to fly too close to the sun.

Best known as the frontman of the influential indie rock trio Dinosaur Jr., J Mascis has also been a solo artist, producer, and film composer. Getting his start as a founding member of the hardcore band Deep Wound, Dinosaur Jr. was founded in 1984 and the group emerged among the most highly regarded alternative rock. By introducing volume and attack in his songs Mascis shed the strict limitations of early 1980’s hardcore, becoming an influence on the burgeoning grunge movement. Mascis’ body of work continues to inspire a generation of guitar players and songwriters today.


In 1997, Dinosaur Jr. disbanded and Mascis released More Light, his first recording under the moniker J Mascis + The Fog. Members and collaborators of The Fog have included Mike Watt (Minutemen / fIREHOSE), Ron Asheton (The Stooges), Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices), Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine), Dave Schools (Hard Working Americans / Widespread Panic) and Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk).